Understanding the Benefits of Glycemic Index in Your Diet

With all the food in the world today, we’ll never know what’s healthy for us or not. For people who are looking to balance their diets, they usually look out for the carbohydrates that they take in. But all these carbohydrates are not created equally; some are high in glycemic index, and other is low.

What is a glycemic index? Glycemic index, or also known as GI, ranks the effects of carbohydrates in any food on the levels of blood glucose. It compares the carbohydrates from food to food per gram so that people may know what produces high GI and what food produces low GI.

Carbohydrates that easily breaks down means that it has low glycemic index because it is gradually being released into your blood stream. This also means that you absorbed and digest in a slower rate of the starches and sugars in the food. This indicates your periphery and liver will have greater extraction in digesting carbohydrates of all the products.

If you’re looking to have a healthy diet, it’s important that you eat carbohydrates with low GI. High GI foods can mean pushing your endocrine system to its limits and raising your blood sugar in a fast way. This is especially true for people who are sedentary and overweight.

Switching to foods that have low GI carbohydrates gives you a lot of benefits because it slowly releases glucose into your blood stream. Other benefits you may get are the following:

Increases the sensitivity of your body to insulin

Improves your control for diabetes

Reduces the risks of heart disease

Reduces the levels of your blood cholesterol

Keeps you full for longer periods of time

Prolongs your endurance in physical activities

Control your weight better for people who are on a diet

Minimises your cravings

Helps minimise your body energy crashes

If you’re currently eating foods that have high carbohydrates and want to switch to low GI, then you don’t need to worry about the transition. It’s as simple as choosing the right food for your everyday meal.

Serve with either pilau rice, grains, couscous, spelt, quinoa or bulgar wheat or why not try and a mix with basmati, quinoa, and dhal. You can choose wholemeal options to make it healthier if you want.